More than 500 young Romanians have been selected to receive travel passes in the second round of the DiscoverEU initiative, which gives them the opportunity to explore Europe.

A total of 2,393 young Romanians registered for the second round of the European Commission’s DiscoverEU initiative, which closed on December 11, 2018, and a total of 551 were selected to join the programme, local Profit.ro reported.

They will be able to travel, alone or in groups of maximum five people, between April 15 and October 31, 2019 for up to 30 days. Most of them will travel by rail with alternative modes of transport used in exceptional cases.

At EU level, almost 80,000 18-year-olds applied for DiscoverEU travel passes in the second round, and more than 14,500 were selected. In the first round organized in June last year, nearly 15,000 young people were selected to receive travel passes, and 576 of them were from Romania.

“It is wonderful to see how young Europeans are using DiscoverEU to get to know their continent. In total, almost 180,000 young people from all over Europe have applied during the two rounds in 2018; and thanks to this initiative, we will have so far given around 30,000 young people the chance to explore Europe's cultures and traditions and connect with other travellers, as well as the communities they are visiting,” said EU Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, responsible for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.

The DiscoverEU initiative was launched in June 2018 following a proposal from the European Parliament for a Preparatory Action with a budget of EUR 12 million in 2018. For 2019, the European Parliament has approved EUR 16 million for DiscoverEU. The Commission is planning to launch the next application round in summer 2019.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Pixabay.com)